A blog following the life and times of Elder Chris Paxton, called to serve in the Idaho Boise Spanish Speaking Mission.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Knowing who you are...

It is interesting how a lot of people think that they need to find themselves before they want to get in to the church. I always think of a quote from President Boyd K. Packer that talks about the study of behavior. He says that, “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.” “LITTLE CHILDREN,” ENSIGN, NOV. 1986, 17. The best way to find out more about oneself is to understand who we were before we were born, and who we can become, and to understand the doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For me, knowing that has made all the difference in my life.

Last night we had a lesson with a friend of one of the members in the branch and she was wondering about why so many people worry about tomorrow and not about today. We watched the video called, Our Heavenly Father's Plan. When it raised the questions,' Where did we come from', 'Why are we here', and 'Where we are going', she asked me if I already knew the answers to those questions and I said that I did. She was impressed that I, being so young, already had that knowledge. She kept saying how even though she was older then us she was still wanting to learn from us "babies."

On Sunday we had another great baptism. We had it after all of our Sunday meetings. So during our sacrament meeting the font was filled and after the whole branch moved to the Relief Society room for the baptism. Brayan is ten and he is super smart. We didn't really need to teach him anything, all we did was review everything. His dad Antonio, who has been a little less active, has been working over the past weeks to get the Melchizedek Priesthood, so he was able to baptize him. I think that he is going to be ordained this next Sunday, and if that is the case then he will also be able to confirm Brayan as well. It was a good service. I think that at the end of the year they are planning going to the temple, Alba was baptized this past December, so it will be cool to see them go through when they can.

Brayan's baptism

During the process of teaching Brayan, we met his 13 year old cousin Erikah, and there was a small miracle involved, that can quite possibly result in a whole family being baptized. We went to Brayan's house to go over the baptismal interview questions to make sure that he understood everything and to be sure that he was ready for baptism. We get in the house and realize that we needed to get something out of the car, also we wanted to get a copy of the Book of Mormon for Brayan's cousin. We go out and I get what we forgot in the car and Elder Phelps gets a Book of Mormon out of the trunk and we go back in and start the lesson. When we get to talking about the Book of Mormon, we go to mark 3 Nephi 11, and Elder Phelps finds a testimony that he had put into a Book of Mormon, weeks before and had forgotten about. The interesting thing about that testimony is that that it was from a 13 year old girl from Nampa, his last area, and he had been carrying it for a few weeks, then put it in to a Book of Mormon, and it just happened to be the one that he grabbed really fast for another 13 year old girl in this area. Things like that don't just happen. We are probably going to go and visit her and her family sometime in the next couple of days, and hopefully it will be another wonderful experience.

On Saturday we had another barbecue in the name of missionary work. Last Tuesday we met with our Ward Mission Leader and one of our ward missionaries before we went out on splits. Bro. Jones, the ward missionary, said that we should have a barbecue for all of our investigators, and less actives, and also invite the members. That would be good for them for fellow shipping purposes. So we did, and it was great. I didn't count how many people were there but there were a lot that were not members that really had a good time.

That is pretty much everything that has been going on this past week. I hope that everything goes well for Trevor with his interviews and everything.